Season series: This is the first of two meetings between the St. Louis Blues and Washington Capitals. They won't face each other again until April 8 at Scottrade Center.

Big story: Alexander Steen and the Blues continue to roll, attempting to keep pace with the Chicago Blackhawks in the Central Division. Steen scored his 17th goal of the season Saturday night, helping the Blues earn a 4-2 victory against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Steen added an assist and passed Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby to grab the NHL scoring lead with 26 points. He also extended his point streak to 13 games. He has 13 goals and five assists over that stretch.

Team Scope:

Blues: After watching a 2-0 lead evaporate in 57 seconds late in the second period, Steen responded for St. Louis 6:20 into the third and T.J. Oshie scored an empty-net goal in the final minute to help the Blues finish their five-game homestand with a 4-0-1 record.

"We really had a good start to the third period. We really dialed it up, and I thought we took control of the hockey game again."

Capitals: After a 4-3 shootout win against the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena on Friday night, Washington returns to Verizon Center to begin a three-game homestand. The Capitals trailed 3-1 before Alex Ovechkin and Michael Latta scored in the third period to force overtime.

Ovechkin believes the growth of linemate Marcus Johansson has played a huge role in recent games.

"To be honest with you, it's just experience," Ovechkin told reporters after practice Saturday. "What we have on the line and he's growing up like a player and like a person as well. He's playing with confidence right now. He's not afraid to take a hit, make a move. It's good for us."

Who's hot: Blues captain David Backes has two goals and three assists during a three-game point streak. Defenseman Jay Bouwmeester has five points (one goal, four assists) in as many games. … Ovechkin has seven points (five goals, two assists) in the past seven games.

Injury report: St. Louis defenseman Jordan Leopold (hand) and forward Magnus Paajarvi (upper body) are on injured reserve. … Capitals coach Adam Oates said Saturday he's hopeful defenseman Mike Green (lower body) will be able to play against the Blues. Green has been day-to-day since playing more than 23 minutes last Tuesday against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Defensemen John Erskine (upper body) and Jack Hillen (leg) are out.

Good job by Oates exploiting matchups. Awful job by Cole and Halak. Great job by Holtby. Not to take anything away from Holtby, but did it seem like the Blues were putting most of their shots right in his chest? Maybe it just looked that way due to his great positioning. Regardless of where the shots are, stopping 46 of 47 is impressive. Elliot was also impressive coming in relief. The only one he let in was a super clean and quick pass into a well-placed cannon. It would take a super-human to have reflexes fast enough to save that. He did have some great saves on Ovechkin. Overall, not a pretty game for the good guys.

drwoland wrote:

4-3 Blues in OT, tough tough game. Steen and Ovechkin drop teh mits.

At one point, Steen was tussling with #88 for the Caps, Schmidt. I saw Steen and as Schmidt turned, I only saw the one 8. I thought the second half of your prediction was going to happen. Then the refs broke it up and I saw the other 8

I'm not going to complain about this one. Second game within a 24 hour span, on the road, against an offensively gifted team. Blues just came out too slow and it burnt them. But it's only the 3rd regulation loss, they're still at 29 points. On the plus side, I thought Elliott came in and settled things down and made some big saves to save it from getting worse. The Blues had some chances but Holtby wasn't letting much through. Either way, time to move on to Buffalo.

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How do you call 47 shots on goal coming out slow? I get the whole giving up 3 goals in the first period being an obvious issue, but its not like the chances weren't there. Against many other teams, 47 SOG would translate to a lot of franking goals. A game against Buffalo may be just what the doctor ordered to get the bad taste of the Washington loss washed away.

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